Saturday, 26 September 2009

The Story So Far

Harold is a demon who has never before been to Earth (or the Brightside, as it is known in the Basement where he and the other demons live).

He has been sent to earth to learn the demon's trade of ensnaring souls. The thing is, he'd much rather be playing jazz - he is a demon (sic!) on the trumpet.

Having made the mistake of crossing a much more powerful demon - one Baron Samedi, who runs a jazz club - by trespassing on his turf, Harold flees to the next city. On the train journey there, a mysterious stranger gives Harold a talking monkey, called Teatime - to "help and advise" him.

When he arrives at the next town, unbeknownst to him, Harold is "spotted" by India, a keen young agent of the Order of the Good Shepherd (OGS), whose mission is to rid the world of demons, to protect mankind.

In the meatime, the TV news reports that a fire has destroyed Baron Samedi's club and the Baron has gone missing.

India manages to plant a GPS tracker on Harold and, after a couple of frustrating days, she and a squad of other agents manage to capture him and Bind him using the ancient hallowed words. They are about to Dismiss him back to the Basement, but the untimely arrival of the police forces them to de-camp to the local OGS base.

Upon arrival, proceedings are delayed yet further when Agent Mercury, the squad leader is unexpectedly called into the Director's office. It turns out orders have been issued to take Harold to HQ, rather than dismiss him. As Harold, Teatime, India and Mercury go outside to get into the van, Teatime siezes his chance and makes a break for it.

Agent Mercury refuses to allow Harold to go after the monkey, insisting they all set off at once. About an hour into the journey, India, who is driving, spots a young couple with a baby and a broken down car at the roadside. They pull over to offer assistence, but the young couple, far from needing help, produce guns and insist that Mercury performs the ritual that will free Harold from the binding. The baby turns out to be none other than Teatime, who had run off to summon a couple of 'black sheep' to come and rescue Harold. They leave Agents India and Mercury trussed up in duct tape and repair to the young couple's palatial home.

Once there, Harold and Teatime are fussed over and treated like royalty by Ray and Nicole. Teatime gets Harold to ask for a bath as an excuse to go somewhere private and talk.

Meanwhile, Agent India discovers that the Ladybird tracker she planted in Harold's bag has not been recovered by OGS and is still working. Meanwhile Teatime tells Harold that he and Harold are really here on Earth to investigate the mysterious disappearance of demons which has started happening recently.

Enjoying the comforts of Ray and Nicole's fine house and hospitality, Harold wonders why he had to work in a bar and live in lousy accommodation when he could have taken his ease here. Teatime hasn't the heart to tell him that he was sent here because his father considers him the most expendible of his demons and therefore could serve as bait to lure out whatever or whoever is causing the disappearances.

Teatime decides that he and Harold should return to Baron Samedi's club and look for clues and Ray drives them. Meanwhile, India, Prada and the others prepare to go after them once more. Before they can move in, however, they are ordered to wait until someone from the Penthouse comes to meet them. Now, heavenly folk almost never involve themselves in earthly matters so this is hightly unusual.

Harold and Teatime find a fire door they can open at the back of Baron Samedi's club and are about to enter when they are accosted by a figure in shining armour wielding a flaming sword. The figure is Baruthiel the Reckoner, an angel. He informs Harold that angels are also disappearing. He manages to persuade Harold that it would be a good idea if he would work with OGS to help solve this mysery. Joshua squad arrives and the angel explains his proposal to them.

They reluctantly agree so long as Harold and Teatime base themselves at OGS HQ and are always accompanied everywhere by an OGS agent.

Next morning, after a quiet night, Harold is called to a meeting where it transpires that 3 angels and 5 demons have disappeared. The Agents and Harold pool what little information they have but are interrupted when Agent Mercury is called outside. When he returns, he informs the group that an OGS Agent has been found murdered. The group go to the dead agent's apartment to search for clues and find a piece of paper with three numbers on it, after a further search they find a chemistry book with a dedication in it, apparently from from Othello - who did not buy the book.

With the aid of Google, Harold and Prada discover that the three numbers are the atomic weights of Dysprosium, Sodium and Molybdenum. Discussing this with Othello, they discover that the chemical symbol names for the three elements spell DYNAMO, the name of an old OGS project. They arrange to meet one Reverend Box the next day who will be able to tell them something about it. They travel to Box's place and he invites them inside - down a deep dark hole.

It turns out he lives in an old cold war bunker. He tells them that someone else has been asking about Project Dynamo and that he shipped all his records of it to them. He promises to send them a copy of the shipping receipt as soon as he can dig it out. He explains that Dynamo was all about attempting to use technology to detect demons. His old partner on the project, one Agent Iris, might still have some. The agents and Harold return to base. Teatime mentions that he is convinced someone else had been in Box's place but had not shown themselves. Othello can find no trace of an Agent Iris in OGS's system. Later, upon seeing Harold and Prada chatting in the break room like normal folks, India's annoyance causes her to accidentally smash her favorite mug.

Next morning, there is still no word from Box so the agents decide to visit him once more. They find his place deserted and his laptop gone. They do, however, find the shipping receipt. Harold repairs India's mug. Arriving at the address on the shipping receipt, the agents and Harold find what appears to be a deserted warehouse. Poking around, Harold discovers a cardboard box concealing what appears to be a bomb.

Harold grabs the bomb and runs off with it to a safe distance, where it explodes, leaving the OGS agents mystified. Teatime explains what has happened and they set off to find Harold. The latter is very weak after the explosion. Hearing an engine approach and believing it to be the others, Harold staggers to his feet. The engine turns out to belong to a motorcycle. The rider orders Harold to jump on the back and, with the sound of police sirens getting uncomfortably close, he does so. His mysterious rescuer turns out to be Reverend Box, who takes him to a safe house.

Box tells Harold how he had been threatened and warned not to help the OGS team and so he had planted a fake Shipping Receipt to lead them (or the people threatening him if they found it first) to a building he'd known from an old case. There, he planned to either meet up with the OGS team, or follow whoever else turned up. Box instructs Harold to text the others, warning them of a traitor in their midst and giving them the address of the safe house.

Box provides Harold with some new clothes as his were ruined in the bomb-blast. The other OGS agents are spotted by agent Moon as they arrive back at Aunt Aggie's and he tells them Director Opal wants a full report. They do this and then set off for the address Harold sent them.

Mr Peck contacts Mr Teeth and informs him that his associates have tracked Harold to an address and can capture him there. Mr Teeth agrees to this. Meanwhile, Harold is surprised and delighted when a scowling India re-unites him with his beloved trumpet.

Discussing the case, the agents decide to consult the personal records of everyone at Aunt Aggie's to see if they contain any clues as to who the traitor might be. Othello hacks into OGS's system and downloads the records. Box notices a telephone company truck parked down the street - unusual at such an early hour - and it is agreed that a watch should be kept.

As it turns out, the telephone truck was nothing to worry about. The agents narrow their choice of possible traitor to five. Shortly after, a UPS delivery truck arrives and, believing the employee to be genuine, Othello opens the door to speak to him. The UPS guy has a gun and, with two companions, ties up the agents and Harold. The UPS guy then orders Harold to go with him, leaving the other two behind to guard their captives.

Believing the UPS guys might be working for whoever is behind the angel and demon disappearences, Teatime tries to make friends with them in the hope they will take him with them if they leave - to no avail. After an hour the two UPS guys suddenly walk out, leaving the OGS agents tied up but otherwise unharmed. Teatime is reluctantly persuaded to try and free them by gnawing through the plastic ties holding their wrists.

Harold, meanwhile, arrives at his destination and is surprised to be ushered into the presence of Mr Teeth, Baron Samedi's right-hand man, who wants to know what Harold has done with his boss. Harold protest his innocence and explains that, he too, is looking for the Baron amongst others.

The OGS agents are at a loss as to where to go next when Othello remembers Box mentioning that a Mark Rainbow had been involved in the Dynamo project. He asks Box if he they could contact him. Box says probably not, as he and Mark fell out when the project was temrinated. Recognising the name, Prada asks if Mark is connected to Rainbow Industries and Box tells her that he is the founder's younder brother.

Could he be the one behind the restart of project Dynamo, they wonder. Box thinks not as Mark was badly injured in a climbing accident and is totally paralysed from the neck down. Further discussion is curtailed by the doorbell ringing.

Elsewhere in the meantime, an employee of Rainbow Telecom, a mobile phone company, receives an unwelcome email from one RolexBoy99, requesting the details of all texts to and from the four OGS Agents' phones. He complies, risking his job, because RolexBoy - a former firend and colleague - knows that he once hit and killed someone with his car and never owned up and has threatened in the past to go to the police. RolexBoy now knows where Box's safe house is.

Harold retuns to the safe house in the comapny of Mr Teeth, who offers the team his help and his not inconsiderable resources. Elsewhere, RolexBoy makes a call and passes over the address of the safe house, advising the employees of 'Infinity Recycling' that there is a specimen there to be collected.

The OGS agents decide to let Mr Teeth help them and he offers them the use of his home. He departs to complete some other business, leaving them to pack up and leave.

Elsewhere, Dr Flowers reflects on her life and the strange research she is involved in.

The agents and Harold pack up and go, leaving Box to tidy up his friend's place a little bit before leaving himself. Just as he's finishing up, a truck and car, bearing the logo of Infinity Recycling, pulls up outside the house. A man and women get out and approach the house. The man goes round the back. Box hides out of sight in the kitchen, hoping the unwanted callers will go away. He is startled by the sound of the man first trying the handle on the french door and, upon finding them locked, breaking the glass to let himself in.

Meanwhile, the others arrive at Mr Teeth's place.

Box hears the intruder let in his female companion and they discuss scanning the house. The mention a 'field' that would prevent whatever they are scanning for from escaping.

Box manages to sneak into the garage undetected by the intruders. Once in there, he discovers a back door, through which he can push the motorcycle and escape. Just as he's in the process of doing this, the male intruder enters the garage. Box throws an old paint tin at him and escapes out the door.

He gets the bike going and roars off down the road, but one of the other Infitity Recycling people takes a pot shot at him. Injured, he heads for the hospital. Meanwhile, the others, settling into Mr teeth's place, are beginning to worry about him.

Eventually, Mercury sends India and Harold to look for Box. He, meanwhile, is told that he needs surgery. Unbeknownst to him, two Infitiy Recycling operatives have followed him to the hospital.

India and Harold arrive near to Box's friend's house. Teatime does a recce and informs them that a white van is parked outside the house. They decide to approach the house from the rear in case Box is in there waiting for the van to leave. They get to the back of the house and Harold stops moving or speaking, standing frozen and lifeless like a statue.

At the hospital. Box is taken down for surgery.

Eventually, the Infinity Recycling people turn off the field and drive away. Harold unfreezes but is disoriented. India drags him to the car.

Dr Flower arrives at the hospital and slips into Box's room where he is recovering from his operation. She drugs him.

India brings Harold back to Mr teeth's, where he recovers. Meanwhile, RolexBoy is informed of recent events.

Next morning, the OGS agents go over what they know and decide to set up a war-board. Othello prints out pictures of the five agents who were previously indentified as possible traitors, plus that of Agent Wood, who worked on project Dynamo with Box. Harold recognises a close resemblance between Agent Wood and Agent Moon. The team decide it might be useful to tail him and see who his contacts are. Meanwhile, Dr Flowers is informed that things are almost ready for the project to proceeed to the next stage.

That night, Harold, diguised, and with Teatime hidden in a sports bag, follows Moon into his apartment block. They wait for Moon to go to bed and Harold lets Teatime into the apartment.

Teatime hunts around for Moon's briefcase with the aim of planting a tracker inside it, but find it locked. His searches lead him to the kitchen where he starts looking in drawers. He is interrupted by Moon waking up for a midnight snack. Fearing discovery, Teatime takes refuge in the rubbish bin.

Moon's snack eventually finishes and Teatime makes his escape, having placed the tracker in Moon's jacket. He and Harold head back to Mr Teeth's with Othello. The humans all go to bed but Harold and Teatime stay up and Teatime reminds Harold that he will have to go back to the basement once the mission is over - which pleases Harold not one bit.

Next day Moon, having been called by Dr Flowers, goes to Infinity Recycling. There, Haynes, hooked up to some seriously hi-tech equipment apparently performs a miraculous healing on an injured monkey.

That night, Agents Mercury, Othello and Prada, plus Harold and Teatime, having tracked Moon to Infinity Recycling take a drive out there and start to look around the place. Unbeknown to them, Harold's presence has triggered an alarm.

Guards in some kind of hi-tech camauflage suits suprise Harold and Prada. Teatime, however, manages to distract them sufficiently for Harold to make his escape. At the same time, Othello and Mercury are themselves captured. A mobile unit, complete with c-detctor and immobilisation field generator, is dispatched to pursue Harold, but he manages to escape over a high fence, having been chased by the truck into a dead-end.

Harold finds himself in a large area of open ground. He is heading across this towards a highway he can see in the distance when the truck comes thundering onto the field, having backed up and made good use of its driver's local knowledge to find a quick way round. The driver's knowledge is not as good as he thought, though, as the truck drives straight into a twenty foot deep drainage culvert, crashing spectacularly.

Harold wrestles with a dilemma: should he use the opportunity to escape, or go back and help the almost certainly badly injusred humans in the truck. He opts for the latter. He manages to rescue two of the truck's occupants and also acquires 2 cases containing some of the silver 'invisbility' suits.

Teatime makes it back to the car where it has previously been agreed that they should all meet up if they were to get searated. Harold calls India and apprises her of the situation. She tells him to return to Mr Teeth's.

Moon arrives at Infinity Recycling and tries to persuade the OGS agents to reveal India's and Harold's whereabouts. Meanwhile, Harold arrives back at Mr Teeth's house with the invisibility suits. India agrees they should try them out and they are all amazed to discover that, with his suit switched on, Harold is undetectable by India.

Teatime suggests this is a good thing as it probably means that the Ifinity Recycling people won't be able to use their detectors to locate Harold either, making a rescue operation more practical.

At Infinity Recycling, Moon eavesdrops on the OGS agents, but they are too savvy to give anything away. Perhaps Dr Flowers might be able to help, he thinks, and calls her up.

Harold has an idea, and he and India travel to the hospital where Box is rrecovering. Harold heals his foot and they head back to Mr Teth's. Meanwhile Dr Flowers remembers that she retrieved an address from the sleeping Box's notebook and tells Moon.

Mr Teeth is startled by his home security system informing him his gates have been opened. His cameras show him an Infinity Recycling van parked in front of them. Nothing is visible on his other cameras, so, shotgun in hand, he prepares to meet the intruders whome he suspects will be wearing invisibility suits.

Meanwhile, the others arrive back at Mr Teeth's and, seeing the Infinity van parked outside, drive past without stoppng. The park up in the next street and Teatime is dispatched on a reccie.

Mr Teeth fires his shotgun, as his patio doors seem to slide open of their own accord.

Teatime makes his way across the garden and quickly assesses the situation. Two intruders are visible, Mr Teeth's shotgun having damaged their invisibility suits.

In the car, the others hear the gunfire and Harold, concerned for Teatime's safety and ignoring the others' warnings not to, sets off after him to see if he's ok. Exasperated, they follow and India prevents Harold from going after the little monkey by the simple expedient of using her taser.

With the Infinity goons dealt with, Box, Mr Teeth, Harold and India formulate a rescue plan of sorts. Soon, with Harold and India wearing the invisibility suits, they requisition the Infinity van and head off to Infinity's building. Following them are some of Mr Teeth's associates.

They get into the Infinity building and begin to search for the others when a fire alarm goes off and the building's staff begin to evacuate. The fire alarm has been triggered by Agent Prada, who found a couple of matches in a matchbook which has slipped into the lining of her coat and so was not found when the Infintity guards searched her.

Box and Mr teeth are forced to evacuate with the other Infinity staff or risk looking suspicious. Meanwhile, Harold and India, still invisible, stay in the building and discover a set of huge steel doors, they slip through them as they begin to close.

Don't be constrained by the Wordle Words! The regular weekly prompts from Magpie etc, are bad enough. They force writers to write far too fast and the results are all too often worthless tripe. I think Wordles are even worse, because they force one's thinking along particular lines, the principle being "I MUST get these words in!' So the result is often little more than "the words" linked by inane stage-directions. Horrible, dangerous way to "prompt" writing.I have grasped the "story so far" but . . . can you ever finish it??? (Wish I could remember the novelist who said "Once I've written the last chapter, the rest isn't too difficult!"

Lucy - I agree with you about Wordzzles distorting the writing - they can and do do that but I am a terrible one for getting started in a project then getting fed up with it and abandoning it half-finished. The weekly challenges have kept me working on this and, yes, I do intend to finish it.